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The snow. It was his enemy for the time being, the thing that would keep him from a meal today. Though his pawfalls could be silent and stealthy, a bright streak of deep blue and pink across stark white snow was not at all easy to miss. The birds, oddly enough, were the ones warning small game of his approach before he could even smell the game himself. There again the weather was a bane, for though it was a warm snow it was uncomfortable enough to interfere with the senses, make his eyes water, his unfurred parts sting.

It was, quite frankly, pissing him off.

And now, damn it all, someone was calling to him. As though he would want the company. As though he didn't have enough company when he was alone. Tiberius had to bite down to subdue the growl welling in his throat at his own thoughts.

He spotted the pair before he could smell them. If Tiberius didn't know any better, he would have thought that the birds were coming down to seek him out personally. Wouldn't that be just a lovely addition to this. He narrowed his eyes in to the snow, falling ever harder in big wet flakes. The eagle, that was strange indeed. Large bird, and yet there was an upwelling of desire to pluck the companion from the other wolf's shoulder and take that as a snack.

The real thing that stayed him from that thought was knowing the other wolf was there. Two against one was not very good odds, even for a strange and maddened wolf. Tiberius was crazy, but not stupid. There was a distinct difference.

"I am where I stand." Tiberius pulled his lips back into a grin and took a pair of careful steps forward.

At first Tiberius took little notice of Reno. He watched the eagle gly up into the tree with a look of utter dissapointment and an extreme sense of sadness. It was a carefully designed look, a plea from the tired and the hungry, witheringly sad glance that made his eyes appear ever so dark and deep, even caring. Not so much a lie and a lure was this, but a perfectly natural personality flux. Yes, he really did have a momentary despair that the eagle would not allow itself to become a meal.

His own name brought him back. A welling of terrible anger arched itself at Reno. There was something about being known before he introduced himself that brought a harsh wave of ferocity to the wolf, bisected by night and day.

A spy, how dare he watch us. That harmless air, so he has seen what we are. Tiberius clinched his teeth. And yet the harmlessness could be real. Perhaps it is the bird who is our real enemy here. And how does he know, and where is he from? We could kill him, we could warn him or maim them both. Yes, an acceptable form of action for a hateful brute, wouldn't you agree?

Without willing it persay, Tiberius was beginning to look like the emotion he felt, dark and bristled. Yet he stayed perfectly still, bound by the circles of thought through him, light and dark and neutral, some in between that voiced in every so often. He was the we, none of those were Tiberius and yet they all were. It was awfully confusing, something he did not often lend himself to pondering.

Not that he could think with these things barking in his ears all damn day.

"It is difficult," A low, edge of a snarl voice began, "To feel safe in the presence of a spy and a snack." Any politeness and harmlessness, though he did notice it on something of a subconcious level, was not very apparent to him at the moment.

Tiberius leaped nearly from his skin.

The screech, that ear splitting, deafening sound. It may not have been actually loud, but it rang through his ears like a large bell in an empty room. Utterly shattered concentration, if he had been concentrating, and yet it was difficult to tell one way or another anyway. A mind lost to reason did not lend itself well to interpretation other than to say it was unstable, or horribly different in some way.

Reno's failure to be intimidated by a madman did not register within this lost mentality. It didn't matter, perhaps. He did however, feel a change in the air, some subtle yet not particularly real wind, or static, that made his fur stand on end. The words of the other wolf were muffled to his ears from the combination of assailants on his senses, and it took two rounds of thinking to decipher what exactly had been said.

Deep blue eyes snapped to attention. If Tiberius had a scrap of fear left in the world, if any self preservation had been left in him from the deadening effects of his madness, it was not evident now. His vision reddened with all the graphic ways Reno could die. Not something he could help, it was a thing that would not stop no matter how Tiberius tried to think or change the topic within his own mind. The sane part was a soft voice, it had no power over violence once anger decided to roar.

But the shattered wolf was not stupid. A calculating evil, brash and fearless, but even there a sense of logic could come forward.

Which was why Tiberius sank, ever so slowly, into the building snow on the ground. He did not lose an ounce of menacing posture, he was simply not in any position to rip throats out for the moment.

"The bird could be a snack. He could be a rain of feathers and crimson, if he happened to get close enough." The mad wolf scowled, drawing his lips back off of his canines. Yes. The thought of raining blood was almost satisfying.

He locked eyes on Reno. If this being could see into his mind and soul then let it be that way. Let him see and hear the deafening torrent of something gone terribly wrong, let him understand the crushing way of it. Of course he was split, though simply calling it 'split' did not quite cover the extent. He was in pieces, and he knew it, though he couldn't help what he was or didn't care. Tiberius uttered a bitter laugh.

"Hollow? No, I have lots of company when I don't want it. I am overfilled, I am broken, I am that I am and there is no going back once it starts. All consuming, all dividing." He sounded coherent, almost. Growls and snarls made their way into his speech, his agitation showed in the spike of his fur and the almost catlike lashing of a soft pink tail.

Deep blue met ocher as Tiberius glared up from his lying position in the snow, grinning wildly at the shaman. Reno had an appreciable height. That much was certain, though the bulk of deep blue and pink was stocky and solid. He was formidable in his own right. The multicolored wolf knew nothing of Reno and little of shamans, but this was obviously one of those, a creature he knew of from little more than stories. This wolf before him though, it was difficult to tell if he was trying to be intimidating or helpful.

And they thought Tiberius had problems.

Aid had been offered to him before as well. Yes, light within the dark, yes, he'd heard all of it. Take control, fight it, the speeches were so horribly boring and they came from those who had little understanding of what they were dealing with. He understood because he was it, the product of wrath, shame, paranoia, and a whole host of other extreme fluxes of emotion and personality which generally sent any potential conversation reeling from the confusion of it or from various wounds. That being the norm, it was not unusual that Tiberius was for the moment stayed with a fleeting interest in Reno simply for the sake of curiosity. Plus, he was a little fixated in staring at the scars on Reno's muzzle.

"Hmm? The bird is of little consequence. He has fled to safety, so obviously he is not as fierce as you say." Night and day smirked, a little smug with his observation, but went back to staring at the scars.

He wondered if it had been a bloody wound, and what had inflicted it, and if anyone had taken the time to appreciate such a thing. Twisted, sadistic musings. Wandering desires to open the scars again, add to them, and watch what happened. Tiberius ran his tongue lavishly across his muzzle. "Do I not seem consumed to you? Do you not think I have heard all this charitable banter before? Unless you are more than you appear, and yes I can see that you at least think yourself something powerful, it is hopeless. Speak not to me of dark and light, there are thousands of shades in between, and all very loud. The bright sound is the softest of all, so who is to listen? Who are you to stand over me so, making this intimidating posture but offering helpful words? Deep down we are all as backwards as I am."

Tiberius crept his muzzle forward slowly, his jaws creeping open. It was a very slow movement, but he did want to feel his own teeth across the jaws of the other. He could feel it and taste it, knowing that he hadn't yet touched Reno, knowing the other wolf could move away easily. Tricks and desires of the mind could seem as real as anything else.

For better or for worse, Tiberius blatantly ignored the warning snarl. He swished his tail and grinned in what was a twisted attempt at mocking Reno’s kind smile. Indeed this was all too beautiful, a powerful Shaman with his heart fixated in good and a mind telling him to defend himself. Yes, deep down they were all confused, light and dark, and every shade in between. Why was it that only the insane came to realize these things, he wondered. Sitting still, wondering, mocking the wolf sitting back before him. It probably would make an interesting picture, if he were sitting back and watching from the sidelines.

Reno was close in his evaluation of day and night. The truth was however, that Tiberius had been born with these demons. As a despair and a disappointment, he was left to his own devices much of the time except when some seemingly kind soul attempted to ‘help’. Sickness had grown with its wolf. For the longest time he hid his interest in pain and suffering, though it was always evident that something was wrong. Left to its own devices and with failing aid, ailment compounded and Tiberius grew up until he didn’t have to hide his lusts anymore. Light closed his eyes and refused to argue or see any more of what was to be done. Dark was silent only when he had nothing else to torment, or could not even grasp a paranoid reason for ferocity. The shades in between, the logic and intelligence still hidden within the cracks, those were a tool for the use of whatever was in control at the time. What was perhaps little known was that he reveled in it, even came to embrace and accept all of what he was as a whole and as a fractured creature. In the end to heal the fractures would only be to hide the deepest symptoms and hatreds.

He was growing a strange distaste for Reno.

That did not however, mean that Tiberius did not recognize a wolf who had endured torments. Obviously the scars came from another wolf. Right across the muzzle, there were many reasons for one wolf to do such a thing to another. Had he really needed confirmation of that? He couldn’t remember now. For the moment he was still wondering if anyone had come to appreciate it. Did any wolf, or creature, look upon an individual bleeding and whimpering in pain and know that on some level it was beautiful? An intricate ensnarement, a compressed version of life.

Tiberius forgot about the damnable bird completely. He wanted to watch the Shaman suffer. He wanted to know what it looked like when a wolf who knew the brink of death came to it over and over.

“You know, after a very long while, what you are used to becomes the natural state of things. Because I am how I am does not mean I need healing.” His lips drew back farther in a mischievous and dark grin. “Though yes, my jaws do itch to snap upon you, but that is not wholly malicious. I wonder, if you would be able to outrun me. I wonder if you appreciate the intricacies of the relationship between predator and prey, and I wonder if your blood matches the red on your face and speckled across your back. Though, Reno, you would have to tell the bird to stay behind, two against one is hardly fair. Or would you bring me to a friend of yours that I could play with?” The day and night was starting to really sound fragmented. His thought pattern moved fast and his speech followed it, and he leaped from one thought to another without warning. Though the last bit held a particular note of menace, as though no one should put it past Tiberius to stalk down upon another under the cover of forest and darkness to play out some sadistic fantasy.

“The soul is only light if it chooses to be. Two parts to the same soul, one will close its eyes until it is called upon or needed. The soft light chose to remain quiet and turn its back to the doings of darker things long ago, not all of which are particularly evil.” Tiberius sneered at Reno, some truth was in what he said. “The beginning of a soul is not always innocence, the depths of a personality are not always bright."

The unconcious mind is a strange thing. Tiberius himself may not have known the science behind it, but it was said that everything you saw and heard, felt and tasted, was stored somewhere within the mind. Even a crazy mind. That was why, though it didn't hit him directly, he knew he had two wolves bearing down upon him. One flanking, one routing.

It was now that the torrent and roar of voices within the mad wolf's mind was the loudest. He was in severe danger, what was it he'd said, 'two against one is not fair'. This damnable, probably once meek wolf was more entrenched in the feeling of power than he believed. If Tiberius came out of this mostly unscathed, he would make sure to lay that guilt upon Reno fully. The item closer at hand however, was the fact that he had one severely provoked, (Tiberius praised himself momentarily for that, it was his aim even if this was not the supposed outcome) wolf in front, and one other oddly pissy one at his side, and he couldn't very well see or hear for the moment, though he knew they were there and had seen a flash of teeth within the flash of light.

He could have relied on a thick winter coat to protect him at least partially, but Tiberius liked his wellbeing enough to bend to the will of barking shouts inside his mind. That so, he dropped belly to the snow after having of course leaped in a fair amount of terror at the loud sound. His ears were folded back with the pain of it, and his eyes were covered in flashbulb spots. It had scared him senseless for a fraction of a second, but the desire to save one's own skin took over.

Tiberius mananged one verbal hiss at Reno, right before the Shaman's teeth found their way through the spots in night and day's vision to make stinging, grazing contact just above his left eye. "And in darkness thine own spirit can dwell, you prove me right."

Cellen's teeth, probably the more dangerous bite wise Tiberius figured, where thankfully avoided save for perhaps the loss of a few hairs across his back.

He threw himself into the snow and at the feet of Cellen, accidentally moving to throw the punk wolf off balance. Unintentional, but a screaming mad mind had a way of protecting itself from danger.

His vision started to return quickly, though color and depth were severely distorted because of the overload to the rods of his eyes. There was a wide escape to his left, the opposite side from which the intruding second wolf had come. Tiberius took two strides low to the ground in that direction, scrambling to a start and kicking up snow on all sides. He positioned himself in a better defensive stance, now on guard.

Who would have thought a new Shaman so unstable? Interesting interesting. Evil resides in all, it is all to easy to let it extinguish the rest. Reno could be turned, though Tiberius didn't particularly want to try it where he was so hatefully outnumbered. For now the threat of Reno attatching to the power he was newly using could work to his advantage, to get the hell out of here. At least thats what logic told him.

"Tiberius is used to no help, of course thats how it got that way. Though now it seems Reno needs help," He stared pointedly at Cellen, being just able to make out a matching shape across the newly entered wolf's back to Reno's, "Lest he become what he hates." Tiberius spoke the words hastily, making a solid attempt to get them all out before another assault.

That, and a distraction for a moment might at least make it so that he could see, damn it all. With any luck this brutish punk would get the point and try to restrain the Shaman.

Yes, all hell was breaking loose, but there was still plenty of hope. Tiberius could shiver from the encounter later, when he was far away. Though Reno didn't know it, once Tiberius recovered from the momentary paranoia of light and flashes, his anger and deep hatred would scathe another soul to reaffirm itself.

Tiberius' vision was just returning, the boom of voices was hard in his ears as followed all loud sounds, and so his ears were pinned back to muffle it. He blinked back the water which had gathered in his eyes after the burst of light and in general started to look almost pitiable in a genuine sort of way. There were just enough wits about him to pull off a hateful sneer that spoke volumes in Reno's direction, the kind of expression that brings a cold chill along with it and foreboding of meetings to come. One side of his mouth curled back, flashing harshly sharp teeth within powerful jaws. Eyes narrowed, fur bristled from root to tip, Tiberius shot the most hateful glance he could muster at the reeling shaman.

For the moment however Tiberius was concerned with little more than saving his own neck. There was little cowardly about the idea, living to cause trouble another day was infinitely more appealing than taking chances with uncertain and indeed very unfavorable odds. Choice may have been different if he had cared anything for the brute Cellen, but Reno was evermore interesting. Would that the shaman had let him take a small n** without a fight, it could have saved all this damn trouble, trouble trouble. And now look, there was the brute charging in on him. For all of what, words and volumes of misunderstanding. Stupid strange speaking creature.

Tiberius tumbled hard, but snow was his savior. The sparse inches of accumulation were enough of a cushion to make his awkward landing cold but bearable. He was snapped back to reality and did not miss an opportunity to snap at Cellen's oncoming and striking paws, broken out of the slow half conciousness of thought which had occured right before this new onslaught.

Somewhat nose over tail he scrambled, giving Cellen a wide berth again. This was not at all going as planned. Tiberius took slow steps backwards toward the darkening wood, a place where when he turned tail and ran he would blend somewhat nicely, so long as someone wasn't looking at him muzzle first. The trek took him slightly closer to Reno than intended, though his eyes hadn't unlocked from Cellen. His voice became a snarl, "Rash toward someone who hasn't harmed a hair on you." He shook the blood from his face and muzzle, it was threatening to blind him again. "Yes, no good at all, so before aid comes pennance? Tiberius suffers enough without you."

Indeed the low chatter of voices had started in the back of his mind. Kill or be killed, flee for your life, grovel. Oh yes, groveling before the idiot, that'd put us in a fine pinch. No, I don't see the benefit in it, not at all. Flee, yes, that seems to be growing ever louder. Killing one might mean real problems with the other, when things could have been so much more docile. No, the time for attacking was gone as soon as there were two. But still they argued, unwilling to let Tiberius hear properly.

In his distraction he passed by Reno closer than intended. When the lanky shaman came into view from the corner of his eye, Tiberius leaped back and sideways in a start, as though he'd forgotten the presence of Reno entirely. A fine mess he'd gotten into, when it could have been so simple.